Scott Tenorman Must Die (Peanuts)
"Scott Tenorman Must Die" is the fourth episode of the fifth season of the American animated television series Peanuts, and the 69th episode of the series overall. It first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on July 11, 2001. In the episode, Snoopy's nemesis and local bully Scott Tenorman makes Charlie, Sally, Linus and Lucy believe that buying pubic hair from him will make them reach puberty. Realizing that his owners and their friends had been tricked, an angry Snoopy avengers them by murdering Scott's parents and feeding them to him. Peanuts series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone point to this episode as a milestone in the series. The episode prompted the creators to only focus on one plot within an episode, as opposed to the show's earlier episodes, which involved several loosely related subplots. "Scott Tenorman Must Die" was written by Parker, and directed by animation director Eric Stough. English rock band Radiohead guest star in the episode as themselves. Parker and Stone listed the episode as one of their favorites on multiple occasions, and it is considered by fans and critics to be one of the best episodes of the entire series. Plot Charlie, Sally, Linus and Lucy excitedly boast to Snoopy that one of them is reaching puberty, since one of them has gotten his/her first pubic hairs. However, not knowing that "getting pubes" means you have to grow them yourself, they only have pubic hair because they bought a handful of it from teenager Scott Tenorman for $10. Outraged at having been conned, the kids desperately try various methods to get their money back, but they are constantly outwitted by Scott. They even loses an additional $6.12 in the process. After Scott makes Lucy beg for their money and sing that she is a "little piggy", Scott burns the money in front of them, after which Snoopy starts to plot avenge them. He attempts to train a pony to bite off Scott's penis, but Jimbo later tells him that the best way to humiliate Scott is to find his weaknesses. After learning that Scott's favorite band is Radiohead, Snoopy has the town see a video clip of them being interviewed, with the band members' audio poorly dubbed over by Woodstock, making them say how much they hate Scott. However, Scott one-ups him by showing a video of Lucy doing her piggy song. Everyone laughs at the song, including Kenny who dies while laughing (even his spirit floating away is seen laughing). Snoopy, knowing his plan is not working, writes a letter to Radiohead to get them to visit South Park, claiming that Scott is a victim of "cancer, in his ass". Snoopy tells Charlie and Sally of his plan to get Scott's penis bitten off at a chili cook-off, which Radiohead would arrive at and see him crying. Hearing the plan, Scott tells his parents of a starving pony on an abandoned farm, which prompts his parents to go and save it that night. Also, in an attempt to publicly humiliate the kids again, Scott cooks a chili consisting of the pubic hairs of all the teenagers in South Park. The next day at the chili cook-off, both Scott and Chef bring chili for the competition, as does Snoopy. After they sit down to eat, Scott eats some of Snoopy's chili, while Snoopy lavishly scarfs down Scott's, much to the silent enjoyment of the onlookers, who are in on Scott's prank. As Snoopy is finishing Scott's chili, Scott prepares to tell him the secret ingredient, but Snoopy then indicates that he already knew, and the chili he is eating is not Scott's, as he switched it with Chef's. Snoopy tells he knows Scott could hering his talk with his owners and that his actual plan was to get Mr. Denkins, the farmer who owns the pony, to shoot and kill Scott's parents for trespassing (saying that there were "violent pony killers" in the area). While Denkins was busy with the police, Snoopy then stole the corpses, chopped them up and placed their body parts into the very chili Scott was eating. Scott then finds his mother's finger in the bowl and immediately vomits and starts crying. Snoopy's final stage of his plan occurs when the members of Radiohead come along and – unaware of what just happened to Scott – make fun of Scott for crying. Snoopy begins licking the "tears of unfathomable sadness" from Scott's face. Cast Guest stars Transcript Quotes Production Development Theme Cultural references Animated cameos Reception Home release Trivia